Art Management Entrepreneurial Styleby Giep Hagoort, Eburon Press, 2001 ISBN 90 5166 802 3 £19.50 This is a worthy complement to the small collection of books on general arts management. Written by a man who has been teaching arts management for a number of years in Utrecht, and has undertaken formal studies in corporate management in the United States, the author has done his homework, drawing on up-to-date examples of practice and current theory from the corporate management sector. Nice to have it that way round and he does give a ‘health warning’, reminds the reader that general management theory is focused on the large scale, profit driven organisations. As he puts it ”The prime concern is that arts managers will make a lot of flawed decisions … if they ignore this tacit weakness in general management theory”. A man after my own heart! This book is replete with diagrams by which Hagoort sets out to depict a fresh look at our amorphous and ambiguous field. He encourages us to think – there are many questions, paradoxes and dilemmas . Nothing new there then, but with his guidance we can feel a little more sure of our own patch of ground. Hagoort identifies a new organisational form, which he calls INO’s Intercultural Network Organisations. These INO’s are made up of core teams, an irregular workforce and strategic alliances and are not dissimilar to organisational patterns Sue Kay and I identified in ‘Hidden From View’ in an earlier Arts Professional article. While the book will particularly useful for any one involved in teaching and training with an interesting international approach, it has wider relevance, with some practical tools and frameworks for thinking and action. Janet Summerton is a research, writer and consultant who leads the Arts and Cultural Management
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